Abe Seeks Dose of Pride in Education Overhaul

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe answers questions during the lower house parliament session in Tokyo on Jan. 28.

The Japanese government is pressing forward with an education overhaul -- one of the key goals of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to instill national pride among Japanese children.

Wednesday’s newspapers were filled with headlines on two significant new steps that will allow the central government to better project its views on teaching of students.

One involves a revision to teaching manuals for middle schools and high schools to emphasize Japan’s territorial claims. The other is the ruling party’s proposed plan to give greater authority to elected local officials to oversee boards of education and set policies for teaching. “We intend to implement a fundamental reform of the existing system” related to boards of education, Mr. Abe told a parliamentary session Tuesday.

Coming after particularly vitriolic arguments over disputed territories and the interpretation of wartime history in recent weeks, Japan’s neighbors immediately fired back. That dashed any hope that nerves would begin to calm down a month after Mr. Abe’s surprise visit to a controversial Tokyo war shrine set off the anger of China and South Korea.

The change in the teaching manuals featured more specific language on the disputed islands and the legitimacy of Japan’s claims. The government expects these manuals – while not legally binding - to serve as guidelines for writing textbooks and setting classroom lessons.

For example, the manual for middle school geography now states that Takeshima, called Dokdo by South Korea and administered by Seoul, is “illegally occupied,” and that Japan has “repeatedly lodged protests” with Seoul over control of the small island. The previous version simply noted there were “differences in positions over Takeshima” between the two governments.

The same manual previously didn’t include any mention of Senkaku Islands, the subject of the bitter territorial spat with China, which calls them Diaoyu. The new version has a lengthy section: “Senkaku Islands are our nation’s unique territory, and we do in fact maintain effective administrative control over them,” it said. “It is necessary to instill understanding that no unresolved dispute over territorial rights exists, along with the knowledge of the location and the scope of the territory.”

Beijing responded angrily Tuesday: “No matter how it racks its brain to propagandize for its erroneous position with various means, Japan cannot change the basic fact that Diaoyu Islands belong to China,” said Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman. South Korea’s foreign ministry summoned Japanese ambassador Koro Bessho to demand the withdrawal of the revised guidelines.

Teaching of “false claims to Dokdo,” Seoul said in a statement, “demonstrate the continued failure of the Japanese government to cast off its distorted view of history and the vestiges of its imperial past.”

Tokyo’s tightening of grips on education comes as Mr. Abe appears to be shifting emphasis to his nationalistic outlook on foreign affairs, after focusing primarily on steps to revive Japan’s economy during the first year of his new administration. The region’s territorial tensions have become heightened since China’s unilateral announcement of a new air defense zone and Mr. Abe’s surprise visit to the war shrine in recent weeks. Worries grew last week after Mr. Abe made apparently offhand remarks, comparing bilateral tensions to rivalries between Britain and Germany before World War I.

Mr. Abe has long called for an overhaul in Japan’s education system to revive patriotism among the Japanese. “After the war, the Japanese have single-mindedly blamed nationalism as the cause of the war and the reason for our defeat. As a result, the notion that the state is evil has become lodged in the corners of the minds of the post-war population,” Mr. Abe wrote in his book “Towards a Beautiful Country” written in 2006 and revised last year. “It is the failure of the post-war education that the Japanese are unable to think from the perspective of national interest or rather, avoid doing so.”